Part 3 of 4.
My guest for this week’s episode is Jacob Glanville. Jacob is the Founder, CEO, & President of Centivax and was formerly the Co-founder, CEO, and President of Distributed Bio.
Join us as we sit down with Jake, discussing his three-part plan for building Distributed Bio without traditional venture capital, how reality differed from the plan, and how the acquisition by Charles River Laboratories occurred.
Learn more about his thoughts on natural team growth and how to handle process drift. Hear Jake’s view on how equipment leasing provided a solution for growing a business when cash was tight and needed for investing in internal operations.
Discover Jake’s insight into what he calls “the respiration model” of leadership, balancing hierarchical and organic structures to promote organization and innovation. Hear more about his experience spinning out Centivax.
Please enjoy my conversation with Jake Glanville.
Find Our Guest, Jacob Glanville, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobglanville https://twitter.com/CurlyJungleJake https://www.centivax.comhttps://twitter.com/centivax
Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheehttps://www.excedr.com
Social & WebsiteLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@excedr Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/excedr_inc Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExcedrInc Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/excedr TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@excedr Podcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:47 Episode start
02:11 Building a biotech without traditional venture capital
05:29 How reality differed from the 3-part plan
07:25 The difficulties of having to get lab space
09:16 Natural team growth & the relationship with the University of San Francisco
12:30 Equipment leasing, how to grow a business when cash is tight and needed for growth
14:40 Jake’s challenges & experiences that were the toughest, managing your partners
17:01 The process drift problem & implementing a buddy system
18:56 Realizing what you really need, when to spend vs. save
20:30 The biotech VC ramp, striking a balance between the hierarchical vs. organic models
22:05 “The respiration model” of leadership
24:20 Moving on to the next thing, what made the SuperHuman-2.0 special
28:00 Spinning out Centivax, winning the Gates Foundation Award
31:10 Focusing on what is most important, the importance of the universal vaccine
33:15 Outro
Enriched Notes:
Topics Mentioned:Distribute Bio https://www.criver.com/charles-river-acquired-distributed-bioCentivax https://www.centivax.com/ Synthetic Libraries https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22735944/Polyspecificity https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22903677/Broad Oak https://broadoak.com/ Arpa H https://www.nih.gov/arpa-h Jlabs https://jnjinnovation.com/jlabs Poisson distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_distribution Charles River Laboratories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_River_LaboratoriesSuperHuman Antibody Library https://www.criver.com/products-services/discovery-services/antibody-discovery-services/biologics-discovery-and-protein-engineering/antibody-discovery/superhuman-antibody-library-discovery
People Mentioned:
Sawsan Youssef: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sawsan-youssef-b274b010/The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.
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